Virtual tour through Tajikistan in 3D
Most of the amazing places to visit in Tajikistan are quite unknown to those interested in visiting the country. That makes it difficult to oversee where the different highlights are located and how far they are apart. We have prepared a 3D viewer that can help out to get the clear overview of everything that Tajikistan has to offer!
Trekking is all about finding your way in the mountains using spatial data and information. For many hikers, Google Maps or Maps.me are invaluable for navigating. One of the shortcomings of such apps however is that they do not really provide a sense of height. At the same time, height differences are a decisive factor for the difficulty of a hike or trek.
Technologies for 3D data visualization are improving and open up new opportunities to provide spatial information in a more truthful and realistic way. Now, we have developed a 3D viewer of Tajikistan with the open source JavaScript library CesiumJS. This software makes it possible to create a 3D world in the web browser. The base viewer looks similar to the well-known to everyone Google Earth. With CesiumJS, however, it is possible to add almost any of your own spatial data and shape a fully customizable world in 3D.
In a first version of the viewer, we have added the main natural highlights of Tajikistan. The viewer has a 3D terrain to show the altitude differences. As mentioned, especially the altitudes are important information when planning a trek. You can navigate through the viewer with your mouse. Especially if you are used to gaming, you will feel comfortable with the controls. If you get stuck or make a strange move, you can always hit the 'Home' button and return to the starting point.
The 3D viewer is not (yet) a tool you would use while hiking since there is no offline mode and it is somewhat heavy to run on a phone. Nevertheless, it certainly helps to get a better idea beforehand of what to expect and plan what you want to see. So get ready to fly through the Tajik mountains and explore what they have to offer from the comfort of your couch.
